CAMPOS' PAPITA ENDS, FILES SUIT AGAINST BISD

By Juan Montoya
In true-and-tried fashion of former Athletic Director Joe Rodriguez's proteges, we now have another lawsuit filed by a Brownsville Independent School District coach who does not want to teach in the classroom and now wants the courts to side with him and get back playing the game on the football field.
In the the lawsuit filed in in 357th District Court by Tom Campos, the former Hanna High School head football coach and athletic director, claims his rights under the Texas Constitution and Texas Government Code were violated because BISD transferred another coach to replace him before Campos had exhausted his remedies under the district’s employee grievance process.
Never mind that Campos signed his contracts with the BISD that state unequivocally that all district employees are subject to reassignment at the will of the BISD administration. He has acquired the services of local attorney John Shergold to represent him in court and now – instead of just a simple difference of opinion on work sites – it is has now morphed into a claim that BISD violated the Texas Government Code and Texas Constitution.
He, of course, wants a declaratory judgement, restoration to his former post, costs, expenses and reasonable attorney’s fees.
People who have watched Campos' rise from a better-than-average player under Chavez at Rivera High School, and then later when Coach Joe tailor-made a position for him as offensive coordinator at a cushy $72,000 salary, marvel at the chutzpah of the claim.
"When Coach Rodriguez hired Campos he had created new positions of offensive and defensive coordinators that did not require a teaching certificate as did other coaches," said a former coach with the district. "He did it because Campos did not have a teaching certificate at the time and he wanted to hire him."
Campos, in his lawsuit, indicates he is not a happy camper because the day after he received an evaluation on Dec. 15, 2011, of his performance as head coach and athletic director at Hanna from Principal Terry Alarcon and Tom Chavez, who was then BISD athletic director, he was then transferred to Lopez High School and sent to the classroom.
Although he did not have a teaching certificate when he was hired by Coach Joe, he had – in the interim – attained it.
He then claims that he had “uncovered a scheme from a plan hatched by some members of (BISD’s) administration that scholarships to Texas A&M University would be given to students who would agree to a voluntary transfer” to Veterans Memorial High School and participate in the district’s STAMP college preparatory magnet program.
That much is in dispute and the BISD administration nor A&M officials have not confirmed such an offer was ever on the table.
The grievance process ensued and then, while his claim made its way though the BISD process, he was replaced at Hanna. This, the Campos lawsuit states, should not have been done before the grievance remedies were exhausted.

The lawsuit concludes that BISD’s “failure and affirmative refusal to afford (Campos) a minimally adequate opportunity to present his grievance violates the Texas Government Code and denied him his rights under the Texas Constitution.”
There will be many BISD administrators – from principals, coaches, Asst. superintendents, the superintendent himself,  and ADs (both Rodriguez and Chavez) – who will probably be deposed to get to the bottom of the complaint. But there is no denying the fact that Campos would prefer not to be in the classroom teaching students, but out in the gridiron thowing the old pigskin around for the same amount of bucks.
Papita, Bro!